Left out and hurt

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Left out and hurt
Abbas and the PLO executive committee reject Hamas' programme for government, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah


Palestinian politics took a new turn for the divisive Wednesday when President Mahmoud Abbas backed a Palestian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee rejection of Hamas' programme for government. In a programme presented to Abbas that includes Hamas' proposed line-up for cabinet, the elected party does not recognise the committee as a legally representative body capable of taking final decisions on Palestinian political issues.

However, the move slighted PLO officials, and received Abbas' backing in their response. "Nobody can ignore the PLO," the president said. In addition, Yasser Abd Rabbo, a PLO official, was quoted as saying that "we can neither deal with nor accept the platform of this government, because the platform neglects the main achievement of the Palestinian people, which is the PLO." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahir responded by saying that the committee is not legally in the right to decide whether or not to reject its programme.

After protracted but fruitless coalition talks with Fatah and other mainly secular Palestinian factions, Hamas, which won legislative elections in January, formed a homogenous government, made up of technocrats, pro-Islamic professionals, academics as well as a number of Hamas's own law-makers.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/787/re1.htm